Monthly Archives: December 2017

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Last month I was much motivated to compile a video for a short film competition held at my university. Then I started working on it in the month of November after my exams. The theme/topic of the whole event was “Colours of Life” so I had to choose a suitable location where I could find various colors and lively people.

Lahore was the first place that popped into my mind for the shooting. I had 2-3 days to cover major areas of Lahore including Anarkali, Masjid Wazir Khan, Minar-e-Pakistan, Badshahi Mosque, food Street, Delhi Gate, and numerous other places. I reached Lahore on Saturday evening and started right away. I kept shooting till Monday and in those 3 days, I witnessed the immense beauty of people of Pakistan. Everything was great, I had food of different kinds, saw people dancing on roads, and much more that cannot be explained through words. I had never made a video before and that was my first ever experience in video making. It overall went good, I had 2 of my childhood friends with me who helped me in everything I needed in Lahore, and they were with me in every little problem. I did not have all the equipment so they arranged some which include a drone and a stabilizer.

The most epic place in my experience was Delhi Gate where it was so crowded even at 1 in the morning and trucks were being loaded for exporting different eatables. And impressive food items such as Siri Paye, Katlamma, Gol-Gappay, Chaat, Pakoray, and others gave me an experience that I will remember forever. I enjoyed every bit of shooting and now it was time to edit and compile the video clips that was another thing I had never done before.

I came back to Islamabad on Tuesday. At first, I was seeking help from a friend in order to edit the video but then something happened and I realized that I and only I can edit this video, there is no other who should be helping me. Then I started watching tutorials on YouTube and finally I was able to use a suitable software for the compilation of my video. It took me 2 weeks to learn and edit the video and it turned out to be somehow good considering the fact that it was my first attempt.

Everyone appreciated the effort I made and I was overwhelmed by that appreciation. People were quite sure that the video would get into top 3 in the competition and that made me feel hopeful as well. Then came the day when they had to announce top 3 videos in the university auditorium and the screening of those videos was also to be done. Unfortunately, my video was not mentioned in any way, and that made me too disappointed. The only reason for my disappointment was that the winning videos were ready –made and also, they were not satisfying the given theme/topic. If judgment would have been fair enough then I would not have been disappointed. Anyway, everything happens for good, so I have accepted what happened. Then I told myself that success comes after failure and I will see success soon.

Overall it was a great experience for me in every way because being a 20-year old girl, traveling alone, working alone etc. was not easy. I want every girl/woman to work on their passion or any hobby so that the world could know how much potential our country has.

SMOG! This word has been hitting the headline news and have stirred the social media for the last few weeks. This toxic cloud of fog, pollutants and calm wind has descended on large swathes of Punjab’s capital and has engulfed the city in its notoriously noxious air. The issue is ballooning as smog that has persisted have cast a dry spell over the entire city.

The negligence of the Government together with the citizens is the root cause of ‘the fifth season’. But why are the children and the older people who probably once fought for an independent Pakistan struggling to breathe? Almost everyone on this side of the border blames Indian farmers for stubble burning. But is it the only reason? No. Is only Punjab government responsible for it? No. We, ourselves, are responsible for what we do. As the proverb says “As you sow so shall you reap”, I say, “What you reap, will make you weep”. Because we are feeding toxicity into nature and there is little mother earth can do to counter it.

So we first need to question our very own doings. Ask yourself, is your vehicle emission free? Do you ride in two stroke so-not-smoke-free rickshaw? Do you take public transport or prefer your very own chauffeured driven luxurious car? How many trees surround your house? How much resources you consume and the waste you produce? And then question the Punjab government who have not focused on green technology and policies. Ask them why they have yet not banned two stroke rickshaw? Why have they not made the cars expensive or set limit for the number of cars per house? Ask these industrial people if their industrial emissions are treated, controlled, monitored and reported?

Lahore is almost ALWAYS under construction which has caused a mess to its air quality. Almost 2200 trees have been cut down for the construction of Orange Line and then you confidently blame India for the smog in Lahore? It’s a high time to live in the reality guys! Emissions from rickshaws and other vehicles, industrial air pollution, urbanization, deforestation, trash burning, developmental projects, road dust, there are a whole lot of reasons that India is not to be blamed for. All these reasons have triggered PM 2.5 to climb up to 600ug/m3-crossing all the global safety benchmarks against the notified standards of 35ug/m3/day!

Hence, blaming a neighboring country and injecting falsities in the popular narrative is as unhealthy as the smog itself. It goes without saying that these lethal and deadly clouds have caused visibility and health issues across the entire city and I know you are also a victim of it. This smog has not only resulted in train and flight delays, road accidents, highway pileups but also school timings been pushed forward due to zero visibility in the early winter mornings.

We all feel this unpleasant dusty smell and brownish haze in air all the time that brings about irritating and watery eyes. Also, it is now no more an unusual sight to see people struggling to breathe and coughing the life out of them. You may have a stronger immune system than the rest of your fellows but caution is mandatory just like your Eid selfies. Health comes first so let go of what other people think and wear a smog mask, better to wet it. Wear eye protection goggles when required and better stay indoors.

On a larger scale, industries should realize to cut down their emissions and tree planting activities should be carried more often. This year clearly pronounces the worsening environmental degradation and indicates that Pakistan can no longer afford to remain oblivious to the growing air pollution. It is a high time to build a country that grows sustainably along with environmental.

Smog is a type of air pollution which is a mixture of smoke and fog. This describes the atmospheric condition of a particular area. This word was firstly used by H.A Des Voeux in 1905 to describe atmospheric conditions of towns and was popularized when he wrote a report on smog abatement league due to more than 1000 deaths were observed in Glasgow and Edinburgh during autumn of 1909 from this mixture of smog and fog. smog is of two types, sulfurous smog, and photochemical smog. Sulfurous smog is known as London smog which is caused by high concentration of sulfur dioxide coming from fossil fuels burning, coal, and due to the high concentration of suspended particles.

Photochemical smog is known as Los Angles smog that usually occurs in urban areas due to a large number of vehicles. This type of smog doesn’t need fog and smoke. Only nitrous oxides and hydrocarbons coming from vehicular emissions are needed.in Lahore photochemical smog is observed in summer while sulfurous smog is observed in winter. Air pollution is increasing due to industrialization and urbanization causing a destruction of our environment and affecting our climate. Climate has totally changed now. Smog is affecting our health while climate change is affecting our future in negative ways.

Lahore is one of the heavily populated cities of Pakistan having so many industries in its adjoining areas. A beautiful and charming city is now suffering a very dangerous type of air pollution known as smog just because of its citizen’s carelessness and selfishness. We are not safe either it is winter or summer. In winter a thick blanket of fog is mostly observed around us when we are unable to see one another at a small distance. When we come out of our home with the fear of getting ill and being injured in an accident. This fog reduces visibility to 0 level, not only visibility but it also puts the citizen into zero level work condition.it effects country’s economy very badly. It has many harmful effects on our health.

People have suffered from diseases such as asthma and lung diseases. Many people have died from smog in past years. According to Deutsche Welle Website, Lahore is now on the list of top 10 cities having worst smog in the world in 2014. Worst smog in Lahore is also observed in 2017.Smog in Lahore is not only observed in winter even also in summer it is observed. Reasons of this smog in Lahore are;

Cutting of trees for construction purpose

Establishment of industries such as coal power plants and nitrous oxides emissions from it

Emissions from burning of Fossil fuels

Vehicular emissions

Burning of agriculture crops

The government of Pakistan has taken strict actions to control smog as more than 500 people complaint daily about the eye, throat irritation, accidents and deaths due to smog. Thirteen power plants were banned for working more than 12 hours, 100 people were arrested for burning crops. Lahore police have said that they have collected fines from drivers for not following emission standards in recent smoggy days was about 50,000$. Although many media campaigns have started by the government of Punjab and also by many private societies to provide awareness to people about smog. But still, there is need to make people understand about environment importance in their lives. This is all due to individual’s carelessness because we are playing a major role in our environmental destruction. But we need to understand that if there is no healthy environment then there will be no good future.

Smog has many health effects such as coughing, throat and chest irritation while leads to lung damage after exposure to smog for a long duration. breathing problem at the start may also lead to asthma attacks. eyes and nose irritation is mostly observed. According to World health organization, more than 60,000 people have died from air pollution.so we need to take certain precautions such as we must wear masks and glasses while working in smoggy areas or going outdoors. Try to avoid areas having more traffic preferring fewer crowd roads. The burning of agricultural material should be avoided. The high speed of vehicles should also be avoided. Fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrid and solar energy consuming vehicles should be preferred.

We must use public transport and should prefer to walk rather than using our private vehicles. Because less fuel is consumed so prevention of smog creation will be done. this will not only reduce consumption of fuel and air pollution but also traffic issue would be under control Cutting of trees should be stopped. monitoring techniques for air emissions should be introduced in industries. But our first preference should be to work indoor while avoiding outdoor work. But the major reason for smog in Lahore is vehicular emissions and cutting of trees. The report that was presented to the government of Punjab has explained that the number of vehicles in Lahore has been increasing rapidly from the last few years. Trees act as regulators for the atmosphere as they make the air clean.in November 2017 Lahore was surrounded by dense smog We are responsible for making our environment unhealthy for us. We need to change our attitude towards it.

Although many of us have awareness about it we have to convey our knowledge to others. we need to protect not only ourselves but also our future generations. we are using vehicles for our comfort establishing factories to make lifestyle better and to earn more money without thinking about its harmful impacts without using monitoring techniques and cutting down trees for constructing our beautiful homes and other buildings without thinking about that what we are doing to our environment. We must think that if we have beautiful homes, more money and good lifestyle but the unhealthy environment and no health then it will be useless to have all that.